


A Tribute: The Friendship

by Pariwhoop



Series: Tribute [3]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Anime, Bleach - Freeform, Character Death, Friendship, Homo, M/M, Manga, mimihagi - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 14:37:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19320190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pariwhoop/pseuds/Pariwhoop
Summary: As long as he lived, he lived with Mimihagi and the promises his parents had made hanging over him. He lived with the looks of pity he got from his younger brothers and his older sisters and the pity he got from his parents. He was treated weaker. He was thought to be weaker. They told him he was weaker. He even believed it himself. He believed it until he met a boy with a mop of curly black hair. A boy with a mischeivous smile, gap toothed and nearly the most beautiful thing Ukitake had ever seen- because, it, truly, contained no pity for him.





	A Tribute: The Friendship

**Author's Note:**

> Homo? No Homo? Are they friends or are they two guys chilling in a hot tub five feet apart because they're not gay?
> 
> You decide.

Let's talk about the greatest friendship in Bleach. Let's talk about a friendship that spanned millenia, a friendship that grew, strong as mountains; the cornerstone upon which the entire Gotei was built and the friendship we were never really told anything about.  
Let's talk about Ukitake Juushirou and Shunsui Kyoraku. Yeah, I know what you are thinking. What about Urahara and Yoruichi? Or Shinji and Hiyori?   
But let's face it. The oldest, strongest friendship is easily of these two captains. They were together in the Gotei. They were the first two captains to graduate from the Shino'o academy, and the only ones who survived the fall of ages, staying together. One thing is for sure. They were the cornerstone, the foundation upon which Genryuusai Shikageni Yamamoto built the Gotei 13 to what it is today. And without them, this entire story of the shinigami that we love and know would never have taken place.

It happened when he was just a little boy.  
He was too young to remember what happened. But he had heard the story from his mother. He saw the pain and the tears in her eyes as she recounted the tale of how he had nearly died as a young child. She told him about the disease that had turned his hair white, the deal she had made with the god, Mimihagi.  
But what his mother didn't realise in her superstition, was that Mimihagi wasn't a benevolent god. There were no benevolent gods. Mimihagi was a curse, Mimihagi was a thief, silently taking his body and his reiatsu and feeding upon him for millennia.  
On his bad days, he wished that his mother had never been so superstitious.

As long as he lived, he lived with Mimihagi and the promises his parents had made hanging over him. He lived with the looks of pity he got from his younger brothers and his older sisters and the pity he got from his parents. He was treated weaker. He was thought to be weaker. They told him he was weaker. He even believed it himself. He believed it until he met a boy with a mop of curly black hair. A boy with a mischievous smile, gap toothed and nearly the most beautiful thing Ukitake had ever seen- because, it, truly, contained no pity for him.  
Tell me how Juushirou Ukitake became friends with Shunsui Kyoraku.  
Tell me how they grew, slowly, growing taller and taller, Shunsui filling in, Ukitake never really filling out.  
Tell me how Shunsui was there for his friend. How Shunsui was there with his strong arms and comforting grin, never backing out of taking care of Ukitake, even when all Ukitake could do was vomit and cough up blood, and tell me how Shunsui Kyoraku never looked at Ukitake even then, with an ounce of pity.  
Tell me how Shunsui Kyoraku convinced Ukitake Juushirou to come with him to the Shino'o Academy. It was new enough then, and it was an exciting endeavor- a school for Shinigami! Ukitake still didn't believe in himself. He didn't think he could do it, and he definitely knew he wouldn't hack it as a shinigami. He was a weak, sickly young man. And though he had the largest reiatsu in his family, even sick, and young, Ukitake didn't believe in himself.   
It made Shunsui Kyoraku sick, the way everyone treated Juushirou. How they treated as though he was invalid, taking away his courage and his curiosity. Beating down his mind, his talent.  
Everyone thought that Shunsui Kyoraku was a player, a cad, and a lazy, worthless waste of space. Maybe he was. Everyone thought that he had no goals.   
But he did. He had one goal.   
And that goal was to make Ukitake Juushirou realise just how talented, important and amazing he was.

And he did achieve it in the end. He convinced Ukitake to go with him to the Shino'o academy. They learned at the feet of Genryuusai Yamamoto; and this is another thing that we missed.   
We were never told how much of a father Yamamoto was to these two, young, talented shinigami; one rail thin, with pale skin and a shock of pale, salt white hair- and the politest young man he'd ever met; the other dark and swarthy, with a mop of curly black hair, and a rakish smile; and also, the two best friends he had ever seen.  
They were yin and yang, really. One white and one black but both forever entwined. Their fate would be bound for, at least, the next two millenia.   
They became many things, together- the first two captains to graduate from the Shino'o academy. The grew older, and older, and stronger, and stronger; and still were as good friends as ever.  
They were really the best kind of friends- the kind of friends that brought out the best in each other. Shunsui made Ukitake confident, took care of him through his illnesses. Ukitake mellowed Shunsui, helped him throught the years, there for him when his sister in law died, when his brother died, when people died, and died and died, Ukitake Juushirou took care of Shunsui Kyoraku.

And Shunsui Kyoraku got his wish. Ukitake Juushirou survived for over two and a half millenia. He was one of the most respected Shinigami captains to ever live. He outlived many people who had never thought he would. He outlived all the people who had treated him as an invalid in his childhood- his parents and two of his siblings and numerous captains. In the end, it was ironical. The child that Juushirou's parents had been worried about the most was the one who ended up supporting his family. The child that Juushirou's parents thought would never survive outlived over twenty other shinigami Gotei captains- all young and healthy.  
He supported everyone in his life until Mimihagi came back, calling for the gift of his life.   
And even then, Ukitake Juushirou died, giving, as always, giving and giving, he gave what was left of his sickly body and his life for a chance at restabilising the worlds.

It made Shunsui Kyoraku angry.  
He was one half of a whole, one half of a pair that would never be truly complete.   
He was angry, that it had had to be this way.  
Sometimes, in the days after, he wished he had never met the young, pale, skinny, white haired child with the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. Those were the bad days.   
The worse days were when he would drink himself into a stupor, and Nanao would put him to bed, taking care of his paperwork, the work of rebuilding the Seireitei, the worse days were the ones he could barely sit up straight.  
Things did get better. He stopped running from his losses and did as Ukitake would have done- he took responsibility.  
He got better.  
Soon, people would think that there was nothing wrong with him.  
But then again, they wouldn't be able to see the hole in his soul, one that had been left by a salt haired shinigami with the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen.


End file.
